I got such a positive response to last week’s A-Z Challenge: Idiosyncrasies and Weekly Photo Challenge: Free Spirit that I decided to expand those concepts into a full-on photo essay.
Yep, we’re a diverse, interesting, lively group, we San Franciscans. Other places claim to be “the melting pot,” but no city embraces worldly differences as warmly as San Francisco. We come from every nation in the world, and we’ve woven our unique cultural idiosyncrasies into the very fabric of a city that has long embraced and encouraged individuality. That’s a lot of creative ideas crashing into one place, and we wear that creative spirit on our sleeves. We know we’re lucky to live in an amazing place that lets us be exactly who we are, and we express it in loud, proud, often garish, but always intriguing terms.
Call us weird, wacky, free-spirited, freaks, hippies, the land of fruits and nuts … whatever … just as long as you call us what we are: San Franciscans, and proud of it, dammit!
Ladies and gentlemen, for your enjoyment, say hello to “The San Franciscans, Part 1.”
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- Flower Booth, Autumn Moon Festival, Chinatown
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- Happy Girl, Civic Center
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- Crystal Ball Guy, Haight Street
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- Market Street Couple
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- Crab Guy, Fisherman’s Wharf
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- North Beach Kid
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- Chefs #1, SF Food Fest, Folsom Street
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- Chef #2, SF Food Fest, Folsom Street
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- Junior Gaga, Civic Center Plaza
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- Union Square Balloon Guy
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- The Pope of Civic Center Plaza
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- Pampered Pooch #2, Sanchez Street
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- Stay Sexy, Civic Center
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- The End, Castro and Market
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- Go Giants! Market Street
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- Chalk Queen, North Beach
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- Old School Pickers, North Beach
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- Bongo Player #2, Ferry Building
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- Divas, Civic Center Plaza
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- Crouching Tiger, Resting Dragons, Chinatown
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- Goth Girl, Folsom Street
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- Yellow, Folsom Street
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- Haight Street Girls
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- Autumn Moon Festival Musicians, Chinatown
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- Blue, South Of Market
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- Disaster, South of Market
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- Old Hippies #2, Civic Center
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- Bongo Player #1, Golden Gate Park
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- Old Hippies, Haight Street
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- You Go Girl, Civic Center
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- Food Truck #2, Hayes Street
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- The Entertainer, Ferry Building
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- Autumn Moon Festival Performers, Chinatown
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- Shopping For Dinner, Chinatown
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- Food Truck #1, Hayes Street
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- Fear The Beard, Market Street
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- Golden Boy Pizza, North Beach
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- Pampered Pooch #1, Duboce Park
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- Ferry Building Brunch
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- Accordion Guy, Haight Street
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- Castro Sunday Afternoon, 18th Street
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- Intersection, Castro and Market
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- Accordion Girl, Standing On A Globe, Haight Street
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- Trumpeteer, Haight Street
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- Skating Bear, Justin Herman Plaza
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- Stop War, Haight Street
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- Java House, Embarcadero
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- Parasol Girl, Civic Center Plaza
Stephen Kelly Creative 
Fantastic arsenal of photos; it IS a great City by virtue of the individuality that creates the greatness. Really love your photos.
Hi Angeline … thanks for that! Lately, I’ve been in a real San Francisco state of mind!
Ahhhh, why don’t I live there? I should never have come home when I visited in 2002 😦
well, it’s not like they close the golden gate … I came back after visiting, and believe me, the jump is worth it!
It sounds very fun. Nice photo collections.
hello, my friend! yes, it’s a very fun place to live!
Wonderful photos. They make me want to go back to San Fran. for another look. 🙂
hi there! you should come back for another look. there’s always something new to see!
What a nice collection of people… although it seems like SF only has small dogs! Where’d all the huskies go?
Hey Drew … since the prices of houses in San Francisco are so high, the majority of people live in apartments and condos, spaces too small to accommodate a big dog. So you see a lot of pugs, Boston terriers, Chihuahuas and beagles. You still see big dogs in some of the home-centric parts of the city … lots of labs, huskies, and Golden retrievers. Personally, I would love to have an Alaskan Malamute, but my space is way too small for a big dog like that. Besides, my building doesn’t allow animals, not even cats.
Not even a budgie? Those things are so cute.
not even a budgie. not even goldfish…
What a wonderful afternoon stroll I had around your San Fransisco – it’s looking cleaner than when I was there in the mid-70s, but just as wild and whacky 🙂
well, wild and wacky for sure! cleaner? maybe not so much. that’s all part of living in a big city environment!
There were some pretty grungy parts of SF back in those days Stephen 🙂
Wonderful photos, Stephen! Do you have to ask them to take their photos, or do they just take it all in stride and assume that of course, you want their photo? When does the Autumn Moon Festival start, and is it celebrated by all Chinatowns (i.e., is it a cultural holiday at large, or is it taking place only in San Francisco?).
Hi Victoria! In some cases, I will ask the subject if they mind being photographed, but I usually just shoot away. Most people here in SF don’t mind.
The Autumn Moon Festival is usually held the last weekend of September … this year the dates are September 22-23. LOVE the Autumn Moon Festival. Lots of fun!!!
Flowers, music, pooches and a lot of fat, disguised people …. guess which of those I like 😀
hmmmm … would that be all of the above?
😀 just the first three 😀
hehe … well, I guess three out of four ain’t bad!!! cheers, paula! have a great weekend!
You too Stephen 😀 Am looking forward to see what you will post for this week’s challenge 🙂
Brilliant photo essay! Seems like everyone is a free spirit here Stephen. And no one appears to be giving the whaco’s a second glance! Reason enough to migrate! imagining that nude man on an Indian street 😆
Hey there, Madhu! Yep, when you live here long enough, you don’t even pay it a second mind. san francisco fully embraces its “anything goes” persona, so anything goes! and no one seems to mind. that’s the beauty of living here.
The Castro/Market/17th intersection pic is my fave! I see it all the time, but you caught quite the diverse crowd!
Hi Vicente … glad you like it! I know … Castro and Market has become the true melting pot. I thought the naked guy at right sort of put an exclamation point on the whole scene. Cheers, Vicente!
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